State v. Lawrence
| Decision Date | 01 October 1985 |
| Docket Number | No. 49204,49204 |
| Citation | 700 S.W.2d 111 |
| Parties | STATE of Missouri, Respondent, v. Edward V. LAWRENCE, Appellant. |
| Court | Missouri Court of Appeals |
Beth S. Ferguson, St. Louis, for appellant.
William L. Webster, Atty. Gen., Michael H. Finkelstein, Asst. Atty. Gen., Jefferson City, for respondent.
Defendant, Edward V. Lawrence, was found guilty by a jury of capital murder, § 565.001, RSMo (1978), and murder in the first degree, § 565.003, RSMo (1978). He was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole for fifty years for capital murder and to a consecutive term of life imprisonment for murder in the first degree. In this direct appeal defendant contends that the court erred in admitting certain identification testimony and in disqualifying jury panel members who stated that they would be unable to consider the death sentence. We affirm.
Since defendant does not challenge the sufficiency of the evidence, we will briefly review the facts in the light most favorable to the verdicts. Defendant and two other men forced their way into the male victim's apartment. They demanded drugs or money from him. After he told them where some drugs were, they forced him and two sisters who had been visiting him at the time to lie on the floor face down. As the three men continued to search the apartment, one of them shot and killed both the man who lived in the apartment and one of the sisters. As the three intruders were leaving, they shot the surviving sister four or five times. Shortly thereafter, the victim's roommate returned. Seeing the ransacked apartment and two of the victims lying on the living room floor, he hurried out of the apartment building. Once outside, he encountered an acquaintance who told him that some men had gone around to the back parking lot. The roommate got into his car and pursued an automobile that was pulling off the lot. He was able to see three men, to get a good look at defendant who was driving the car, and to record the license plate number.
Defendant first challenges the failure of the trial court to suppress the identification testimony of the victim's roommate, because his out-of-court identification was unreliable and tainted his in-court identification of defendant. He alleges that the witness' identification of him in a police photo display was tainted because the witness remembered him, not from the day of the crime, but from a photo the witness had seen in a local newspaper, and from a conversation in which a friend told the witness that defendant had been involved in the murders.
We find no error in overruling the motion to suppress the identification testimony. Defendant contends that, under the "totality of the circumstances" test, the identification procedures would prove unreliable. See State v. Grounds, 676 S.W.2d 10, 11 (Mo.App.1984). In a case in which the identification procedures are challenged as unreliable, the admissibility of the identification is determined by balancing the likelihood of irreparable misidentification against the necessity for the government to use the identification procedures questioned. Simmons v. United States, 390 U.S. 377, 88 S.Ct. 967, 19 L.Ed.2d 1247 (1968); Stovall v. Denno, 388 U.S. 293, 87 S.Ct. 1967, 18 L.Ed.2d 1199 (1967). In this case, however, defendant has not claimed that the police used any improper identification procedures. When the source of the alleged taint is not governmental, the balancing test under Stovall and Simmons is not applicable. United States v. Peele, 574 F.2d 489, 491 (9th Cir.1978). It is for the trier of fact to determine the extent to which nongovernmental sources have influenced the perception...
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Ferguson v. Dormire
...misidentification against the necessity for the government to use the identification procedures questioned.” State v. Lawrence, 700 S.W.2d 111, 112 (Mo.App. E.D.1985) (citing Simmons v. United States, 390 U.S. 377, 88 S.Ct. 967, 19 L.Ed.2d 1247 (1968); Stovall v. Denno, 388 U.S. 293, 87 S.C......
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State v. Tisdale
...a defendant's arrest is not an `identification procedure'")(citing State v. Daughtery, 563 So.2d 1171 (La.App.1990)); State v. Lawrence, 700 S.W.2d 111 (Mo.Ct.App.1985) ("When the source of the alleged taint is not governmental, the balancing test under Stovall and Simmons is not applicable......
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Lawrence v. Armontrout, 93-1933
...consecutive life imprisonment sentence for murder in the first degree. The convictions were affirmed on direct appeal. State v. Lawrence, 700 S.W.2d 111 (Mo.Ct.App.1985), cert. denied, 476 U.S. 1106, 106 S.Ct. 1951, 90 L.Ed.2d 361 (1986). Lawrence then filed a request for post-conviction re......
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State v. Jones, 66697
...in both appellant's name and that of his ex-wife, Iris Jones.3 The first statement was not introduced at trial.1 See, e.g., State v. Lawrence, 700 S.W.2d 111 (Mo.App.1985) (Defendant and two others robbed an apartment looking for drugs. In that process, they shot two people to death and wou......